[ClearCase_guy]

Perhaps I am mis-interpeting, since he never finished, but I think he was pointing out the big US sacrifice, in blood and treasure that was made in Afghanistan, over a period of many years. And then he added that Taiwan was “different”. Ummmmmm, different how? Different as being somehow not worthy of any equivalent sacrifice? PRC take note.

[Political Junkie Too]

The only thing different about Taiwan is that it's a thriving first world country with a stable government and a producing economy.

Taiwan is also home to many semiconductor industries, so a communist Chinese takeover of Taiwan would have global economic impacts in ways that Afghanistan does not.

What makes Afghanistan different is that it was a forward deployment base sitting right on China's western border. The United States could have used Afghanistan as a rapid deployment site to keep the peace in the Middle East, as well as an intel hub against Russia to the north and China to the east, while settling in the way we did in Germany, Japan, and South Korea.

It didn't have to be a continued war zone. The mission could have changed to long-term regional stability and strategic deployment.

-PJ